Question

You have an enzyme solution at a concentration of 5mg/ml. The enzyme activity you determine is 0.1 Units per microliters of undiluted protein. What is the specific activity of the enzyme (U/mg)?

Answer 1

Enzyme activity (U) = Amount ( in mole of micromole ) of substrate converted into product per minute by an enzyme solution (mg/ml).

Specific activity of enzyme = Amount of substrate converted into products per minute by 1 miligram of enzyme.

So Specific activity of enzyme = Enzyme activity / concentration of enzyme in mg/ml

Here given-

Enzyme concentration = 5mg/ml

Enzyme activity = 0.1 U (1 U or 1 Unit = 1 micromole / minute)

Thus specific activity of enzyme = 0.1 U / 5 mg/ml = 0.02 U/minute/mg